The [Slave's] Complaint*

[written to be sung to the popular ballad, Admiral Hosier's Ghost] 

Forc'd from home, and all its pleasures, 

Afric's coast I left forlorn; 

To increase a stranger's treasures, 

O'er the raging billows borne. 

Frederic Shoberl, 1821 (depicting Virginia, USA)

Men from England bought and sold me,  

Paid my price in paltry gold; 

But, though theirs they have enroll'd me, 

Minds are never to be sold. 

Still in thought as free as ever, 

What are England's rights, I ask, 

Me from my delights to sever, 

Me to torture, me to task? 

Fleecy locks, and black complexion 

Cannot forfeit nature's claim; 

Skins may differ, but affection 

Dwells in white and black the same. 

Why did all creating Nature 

 Make the plant*** for which we toil? 

Sighs must fan it, tears must water, 

Sweat of ours must dress the soil. 

Think, ye masters, iron-hearted, 

 Lolling at your jovial boards; 

Think how many backs have smarted 

For the sweets*** your cane affords. 

Is there, as ye sometimes tell us, 

 Is there one who reigns on high? 

Has he bid you buy and sell us, 

Speaking from his throne the sky? 

Ask him, if your knotted scourges, 

Matches, blood-extorting screws, 

Are the means that duty urges 

Agents of his will to use? 

Hark! He answers!—Wild tornadoes, 

Strewing yonder sea with wrecks; 

Wasting towns, plantations, meadows, 

Are the voice with which he speaks. 

He, foreseeing what vexations 

Afric's sons should undergo, 

Fix'd their tyrants' habitations 

 Where his whirlwinds answer.**

— William Cowper, 1877; Stanzas 1-5 [English poet, hymnwriter & clergyman] 

 *The original title of this poem was "The Negro's Complaint." This archaic term was not intended to offend; it was the term used at the time. As you can see, Cowper took the heart and soul of the Black man very seriously. 

**Fierce weather in the Caribbean, where many English slaves were sent More information on Cowper (prounounced "Cooper") Biographical Info and Quotes of William Cowper

***Sugar cane in the Caribbean

Changes Prompted by 1918 Flu Pandemic

      The 1918 global flu pandemic, coming in the wake of WWI, was a travesty.  So many people were shaken by it, and by their responses (sometimes more selfish than they would have thought of themselves), as well as their survivors' guilt, that first-hand accounts of the flu largely disappeared.   

Seattle, Washington; 39th Infantry preparing for deployment to France

     However, the whole tragedy prompted some positive changes that stay with us.  Here is a slide show accounting of some of those changes:

Daily Mail: 10 Major Changes Resulting from the 1918 Flu Pandemic
 
     I was really surprised this event was given so much credit for countering "eugenics."  Eugenics was the study of how to arrange human reproduction to increase the passing down of "desirable" inherited characteristics. That meant so-called less-desirable people were forcibly sterilized (including in the U.S.) There were attempts to promote abortion more heavily among the poor. The 1918 pandemic helped people realize that the conditions of poverty, not personal "defects", allowed diseases to spread more rapidly among the poor.
     Francis Galton, an Englishman, was largely responsible for first developing this line of thinking.  In the U.S., Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, came to believe in eugenics.  (It's not true, however, that she did it for racially motivated reasons.)  In "The Eugenic Vale of Birth Control Propaganda" (1921), she wrote that "the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective."  Eugenics was finally dealt its death blow after the Nazi's abhorrent use of it.

Juneteenth

     Juneteenth -- a blending of the words June and nineteenth -- is the oldest known US celebration of the end of slavery. It commemorates June 19, 1865. That's the day that Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, and told slaves of their emancipation from slavery.

     "In accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free," Granger read to the crowd that day. It came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
     In 1980, Texas was the first state to make Juneteenth a state holiday, although it had been celebrated informally since 1865.

Luckiest Man Alive

MLB just started up.  Normally, I don't give a lot of attention to sports, first-run movies or basically any entertainment that make the rich richer.  I have one exception:  I follow the Yankees somewhat and buy a little of their gear. This is due to how impressed I was with Pride of the Yankees, the Lou Gehrig story, when I was a kid.

Here's a clip with both the real Lou Gehrig with an animated story behind it.  There is not much of the original speech surviving.  In fact, it had to be crafted from various memories.

The speech was first given at a Fourth of July double header in 1939.

Lou Gehrig, Class Act

 Here's a version that has that short amount of Gehrig footage plus the movie version of his famous speech, starring Gary Cooper:  

Gehrig's 4th of July Farewell Speech

Here are some fun photos as an homage. 

More Corny Jokes

🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽

What did the mommy rope say to the baby rope?
"Don't be knotty."  

How do you make an orange giggle?
Tickle its navel.   🍊

What kind of candy is never on time?
Choco-late.  🍬

What do you get when you cross an elephant with Darth Vader?
An ele-vader.   🐘 👐👥

What has four legs, one head, but only one foot?
A bed. 🌙🌃

What are a storm's undergarments?
Thunder wear.  ☂⛆

Why was the broom late for work?
It over swept.  🧹

Why did the golfer wear two pairs of pants?
In case he got a hole-in-one.   🏆

Why did the banana wear sunscreen at the beach?
It didn't want to peel.  🍌

What do you call a dentist who cleans alligator teeth?
Crazy!!!  🐊🦷

Corny Jokes

 🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽

Why do you eat sausage on February 2nd?
Because it's "ground hog."🐷🐷🐷🐹🐹🐹

What's a baby's motto?
If at first you don't succeed, cry, cry again.👶😢😭

What kind of craft does a pine tree do? 🌲
Needlepoint!   😝

What did the tomato say to the mushroom?
"You look like a fungi [fun guy]."  🍄

Where does the trombone stay off the merry-go-round?
Because it likes the slide.   🎵🎵🎵

Why aren't the trumpets on the slide?
Because they like to swing.  🎺🎺🎺 

Why don't Dalmatians like baths? 
They don't like being spotless.  🐶

Why did the hamburger quit answering questions?
If felt like it was being grilled.  🍔🍔

What did the cake say to the knife? 🗡
"You want a piece of me?"  🎂

What's the cleanest section in the choir?  
The soap-ranos.   🎶🎶🎶

On a stoplight, red means "stop" and green means "go."
When does red mean "go" and green mean "stop"?
On a watermelon!  🍉🍉🍉😏

Epiphany Day & Carnival Season

Homemade "King Cake" for Epiphany Day, January 6th, the kick-off of Carnival Season.  Purple for Justice, Green for Faith, Gold for Power. Named for the presumed Three Kings (really, an unknown number of Magi, or "seers").  A plastic Baby Jesus is put inside, and whoever gets Him brings the next King Cake.